Freaky Friday
by missgrant
Summary: Set in the last year of "Page": a mysterious gift turns out to be big trouble for Kel and Lalasa!
1. Cake

**I know I've not finished my other story yet, but this idea came to me while watching TV the other day and won't go away. Hey, I'm a woman...I can multitask!**

**As ever I don't own anything you recognise from the books. This story is also completely separate from my other two - it is set during Kel's last year as a page.**

1

The package had no name on it, but it was not the first time Keladry of Mindelan had received gifts from an anonymous well-wisher.

"Look at this Lalasa," she said, showing it to her maid.

Lalasa came over from her sewing, smiling at the thick icing on top of the cake. "Someone knows you've had a bad week and wants to cheer you up, My Lady."

Kel snorted. As a senior page, she could go through the daily routine in her sleep, but lately things had started to change. Recently her jousting lessons had been made even harder by the training master, Lord Wyldon and assignments given by the masters for her written lessons had been piling up. On top of all of that, new weights had been added to the harness the pages wore.

"It looks really nice," murmured Kel distractedly, lifting the cake from the box. She frowned. "There was no note at all. There's usually a small note, saying something like '_Goddess Bless'_…"

"So?"

Kel shrugged. "I'm just not sure if we should eat it, if we don't really know who it's from." She paused, eyeing the cake again. It _did_ look really nice…fruit cake, with lavish icing dusted with sugar.

"You don't know who any of the gifts are from, My Lady," said Lalasa reasonably. "Why would someone go to the trouble of sending you such a nice cake if they only wanted to cause mischief? There are much easier ways of doing that."

"You're right." Kel smiled at the older girl. "I should stop being so suspicious – it's been years since anyone tried anything on me and even Joren seems to want to make amends recently."

She got a knife out of the drawer and cut two big slices. Giving one to Lalasa, she hid the rest of the cake in a cupboard.

"Are you not planning on sharing this with the boys, My Lady?" asked Lalasa.

"They eat enough of my food as it is. We'll keep this just for us, I think. After all, we girls deserve a treat every now and then." Seeing refusal in Lalasa's eyes, Kel continued, "Come on Lalasa, you've been working so hard recently, with all your sewing for the Queen. You deserve a treat as well."

Lalasa grinned and ducked her head. Kel winked and took a big bite of her slice of cake.

It tasted as wonderful as it looked.

"Oooh, it's so rich!" said Lalasa, as she was halfway through. "I don't think I can manage any more My Lady."

Kel brushed her fingers off on her breeches and held out her hand, her piece already devoured. "Pass it over, no point it going to waste." As Lalasa shook her head in amazement, Kel just grinned. "Bet you I can get this entire bit in at once." As her maid looked on in disbelief, Kel shoved the cake in her mouth and in a couple of chews it was gone.

"No wonder you're growing so fast," commented Lalasa, her eyebrows raised. "I've never known anyone eat so much!"

The bell for afternoon lessons went. As furious knocking hammered on her door, Kel wished Lalasa a good afternoon and grabbed her things.

Halfway through mathematics, normally her favourite lesson, Kel began to regret eating so much cake. She was even sleepier than usual and feeling a little queasy.

_Serves me right for woofing all that down. Oh Mithros, after all I ate for lunch as well! And I've still got to get through the rest of the afternoon._

Master Ivor 's voice started to become slightly distorted as Kel felt her eyelids grow heavy.

_I'm so tired. Thank the gods Neal made us sit at the back of the classroom this year. Maybe no one will…notice…if I just…shut my eyes…for a little…just…for…a…bit…_


	2. Rude Awakening

2

"Kel! Wake up!" Someone was shaking her by the shoulder.

She opened her eyes, confused, and looked straight into the sardonic green stare of Nealan of Queenscove.

"What…" she blinked and looked around.

"Master Ivor keeps staring pointedly at you, my dear girl. If I were you, I would start doing some of the problems he has set instead of drooling on my shoulder." Neal kept his voice low, eyebrows raised pointedly.

She looked around the room, at all the boys sat around, working quietly on slates. She looked down at herself.

"No!"

Her voice was loud in the quiet room. Master Ivor stood up, folding his arms across his orange robes.

"Page Keladry, is there some kind of problem today?" said the Mithran, sternly.

She stared back at him with wide eyes for a moment, before bolting out of her seat, sending her chair flying. Before anyone could move, or stop her, she had made it to the door.


	3. Unpleasant Discovery

3

Kel's eyes shot open.

That was strange. She was sure, _convinced_, that she had been sitting in her mathematics class.

But she wasn't. She was in her room.

Even stranger, she was sat in the window seat.

_Even_ stranger…she had some sort of material on her lap.

"Odd…" she muttered to herself, clambering to her feet. She put the material carefully on the side and straightened out her skirts.

She was wearing a skirt. A dark skirt. And a white blouse.

"What the?" Kel looked down at her outfit. She didn't own any clothes like this. Despite still wearing girl's clothes to dinner, to continue making her point to the boys, she wore _dresses_. She didn't own any skirts, did she?

Her head ached and something was tickling her face. Impatiently, Kel brushed her hair aside and then paused. Something was definitely not right.

Feeling the top of her head, Kel's fingers found thick, glossy hair...thick, _long_, glossy hair tied back in a bun.

Her eyes widening, Kel looked down at her clothes again and made another shocking realisation. She could not see her feet as well as she usually could because something – or rather, some_things_ – seemed to be obscuring her view.

"No, no, no, no…" she muttered to herself, although she had no idea what it was she was denying.

Forcing herself to breathe slowly, Kel found some semblance of Yamani calm and held on to it as she made her way into her washroom.

She stood in front of the mirror.

And screamed.


	4. Confusion

4

Neal hadn't waited for Master Ivor to give him permission to follow his best friend. He knew he would catch trouble for that later, but Neal was used to trouble. He lived and breathed trouble.

He was more worried about the way Kel had ran out of the room. The look on her face was as if she had opened her eyes to discover she was in a spidren nest.

Long legs eating up the distance between them, Neal finally caught up with Kel and grabbed her by the shoulder.

"What are you _doing?_"

She stopped and gave a cry, as if his touch had stung. Snatching his hand back, Neal stared at his friend aghast as she backed away from him until her back hit the wall of the corridor.

"Kel? What's wrong?"

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but no words came out. To his absolute horror, tears started to pour down her cheeks.

"Mithros…Kel, tell me! What's the matter?" Neal had never seen her like this before. She was deathly pale and her eyes were enormous with…with fear, he realised.

Keladry of Mindelan looked _terrified_ about something.

He went to reach for her again and she flinched from him; as if it was _him_ she was scared of.

Hurried footsteps reached his ears; both Neal and Kel turned to see a small figure running towards them.

"Neal!" said Lalasa, breathlessly, skidding to a halt in front of him. "Neal, something…" The maid stopped, her eyes widening as she saw Kel behind him.

And the most awful sound filled his ears. Neal had never heard Kel scream before, in terror, but she was doing so now, staring at Lalasa as though her eyes were going to fall out.

Before he could say, or do, anything to stop her, the sound ended as Kel's eyes rolled up in her head and she crumpled to the floor in a faint.

"Oh Goddess!" Neal crouched down to his friend, his Gift glowing around his hand as he placed it on her forehead. "Lalasa, go and fetch my father, something's wrong with Kel!"

"Something's very wrong with Kel," agreed the maid.

Frowning, Neal looked up at her. There was something odd about the way Lalasa was standing there; he couldn't put his finger on it, maybe it was the way she was standing, it seemed…different.

"Lalasa," he said again, patience wearing thin. "What's going on?"

"I'm not Lalasa," answered the girl, her dark eyes regarding him seriously. "Lalasa's right in front of you."

His head was starting to hurt. "You're not making any sense."

Looking straight into his eyes – that was it, even though she had become more confident in the last few years, Lalasa never looked directly at any of them, not the way she was doing now – she shook her head and pointed at the prone form of the female page at his feet. "_That_ is Lalasa. I think."

Neal didn't answer; he just stared at her.

"It's me, Neal. _I'm _Kel!"


	5. Explanations

5

It had been Joren and his cronies who had given her the nickname "The Lump". Kel had always ignored it as being too silly for words – she was not one to let stupid names get to her.

However, as she and Neal puffed along the corridor, with the unconscious form of…of _herself _slung between them, Kel was starting to think maybe Joren had a point.

It seemed to take a long time to make it back to her room, but once there, they bundled the body onto the bed.

Kel straightened with a grimace as he back protested. "Mithros! I need to lose some weight. Or something."

Neal was still staring at her. He hadn't said much since she had tried to explain the predicament to him.

To be honest, Kel wasn't that sure herself what had happened. All she knew was she had woken up in Lalasa's body. And she was pretty sure that Lalasa was even now trapped in Kel's body.

She tried explaining that to him again.

His eyes grew wider. "So…_you're_ Kel?"

"Yes."

"And _that's_ Lalasa?"

"I think so."

"You _think_…" he rubbed a hand over his face. "What did I say, on the first day I became your sponsor?"

Kel sighed and folded her arms…_attempted _to fold her arms, she wasn't quite sure where to put them; over or under? How did Lalasa cope with…anyway: "You said to me, 'With me at least you might last a while, even if I am at the bottom of Lord Wyldon's list.'"

Neal gave her a long, searching look. He nodded his head. "All right…Kel. Why don't we try waking…possibly Lalasa up and see what she has to say about all this?" He went to lean over the bed and paused. "Maybe…maybe just stay out of sight for a moment? I think the shock was a bit too much for her last time."

As soon as Kel had ducked behind the changing screen, Neal placed a hand on her forehead. It glowed green momentarily. Kel's body opened its eyes.

"Lalasa?"

Kel's body nodded.

"Right that clears that up then. Don't panic…again…but we do have a little problem in that…well…"

Lalasa whimpered.

"Sit up slowly, that's it. Prop yourself up against the pillows." He cleared his throat. "Kel…I think you'd better come out now."

And so she did.

It was so strange, seeing herself from this angle. It was even stranger seeing her own face go through so many different expressions: fear, confusion, disbelief and back to fear again. Lalasa stood up and Kel got the shock of her life. She was _so_ _tall_! For an almost fourteen year old, to be standing at five foot nine…

Neal had got to his feet as well, he was usually only a few inches taller than she was nowadays, but in this different body he _towered _over her.

For the first time in her life, Keladry of MIndelan knew what it felt like to be short.

"Oh, Lady Kel…" whimpered Lalasa; except Lalasa was whimpering with _Kel's_ voice.

"It's ok," Kel heard herself say, with Lalasa's voice. She didn't know if it was ok. She didn't know if it was ok at all.

Tears were pouring down Lalasa's cheeks – except they _weren't_ Lalasa's cheeks…

Kel closed her eyes and groaned softly. She was trying to stay as calm as she could, for everyone's sakes. It would be nice...for once…if she could allow herself to give in to panic, to crumple into a weeping mess. No one could blame her.

"Ladies," Neal's voice sounded a little faint, and when Kel opened her eyes and looked at him, he was quite pale. "We obviously have a problem here. I think the first thing to do is to find out how this happened…then we can sort out trying to reverse it." He cleared his throat. "Now…did anything unusual happen this morning?"

Kel thought and shrugged. "I don't think so, I came back from lunch to collect my books for this afternoon and everything was fine…"

"I…I was sewing…for the queen…" Lalasa hiccupped, wiping tears onto the back of her sleeve. _Kel's sleeve._ "I felt sleepy and must have…must have dozed off and when I opened my eyes…" She started crying again, burying her face in her hands. Kel was starting to feel irritated at the sight of her own body having to go through so much weeping.

"_Nothing_ unusual? At all?" persisted Neal.

Shaking her head, Kel replied, "Nothing, unless you count…" Her voice trailed off as she remembered something.

Lalasa raised her head and looked at her, hazel eyes wide.

As one they both turned their gazes to the cupboard, wherein sat an innocuous looking fruit cake…


End file.
